Better than a museum

Apologies on the lack of updates. Breast cancer treatment becomes a part-time job very quickly.

This week’s strip go into Lez’s daily radiation treatments. Lez started treatments on April 9. She is set to have 19 total. Five days a week. Like I said, part-time job. The first five were rough. Her skin was burning, not on fire, more like an uncomfortable sunburn. We were told that after the treatment, she’d feel fatigued. That was totally accurate. After treatment on the first day, I took her back to work. She wanted to see if she could do it. She couldn’t. She was home less than an hour later and slept for two.

But, we got into a groove… growing accustomed to the weekday cut up by treatment. Yesterday was treatment #13… the home stretch is within sight.

Lez let the Radiology office know that I was doing strips with them in the background this week. They loved it so much they printed them out and taped them to the patient welcome window. (See image)

As a cartoonist, anytime anyone loves your stuff enough to cut it out and tape, tack or staple it to a wall, window, refrigerator or bulletin board… it’s a good feeling. To me, it’s better than if my stuff were hanging in a museum. The people who see those day after day are the people I’m writing about. They’re going through what my family is going through. We’re them and they’re us. It’s them in the strip. How can that not be special?

What the nurses, doctors and staff at Upstate Cancer Center – Oneida do can not be understated. They save lives. Day in and day out. More importantly, they make us feel comfortable…despite the overall stress of the situation. There’s always a smile. They always help. We cannot thank them enough.